Album research:

I have been thinking about My digi pack and i have researched into album covers by women who are in the pop industry today,
I liked Ke$ha's cover - Animal:

I really like the use of colour i like how the main picture is in black and white and ke$ha's lips are in colour this is really quirky and the glitter is really girly this would fit really well with the ideas for our album, i also like how the writing is in colour as i feel this stands out so much more as the picture is in black and white, colour is a very important factor when thinking about my album cover.

Rhianna- Ristricted:

I liked this cover as i think is is different compared to the other typical album covers by women popstars, i like how its not focused on rhianna's face and it doesnt even have her name on, however Rhianna is a very famous women and is known world wide, for my album cover i will have to show a clear picture of the artist and have her name quite big so it stands out.

Kylie- Aphrodite:

I really like the use of camera angle on this album cover, the low angled shot shows Kylie to have great power and authority, it shows kylie to be a strong woman, and this fits really well with our ideas for our artist as she is ment to be strong willed and to have quite a feminist ideology.

Finially Lily Allen- Alright still:

I really like how Lily Allen has used extremely funky mise-en-scene in the background for her album cover, it shows her personality and really bold and loud, this is perfect for how we want to portray our artist as she is quirky and fun.

Filming day two:

On thursday we decided to film two of our scenes as our camera has to be in soon, we started our filming during lunch break in the photography room on the white background, we set up all the lights and theses shots will be our performance part to the video, performamce tends to be in a studio and the photography room is the cloestest thing weve got. We have choose the photography studio as our location to do our split screens and some point of view shoots, As Oyinda got in her costume for this scene, i set up the camera, We started with Oyinda's performance which she was wearing a candy stripe dress, we choose this as the pink is very girly and the abit quirky which fits with her character. we did high angled shots of Oyinda singing and also shots from infront. We also filmed John who is our male actor, we filmed John blow gliter into the camera and then filmed a shot of gliter being blown at Oyinda this will be our point of view shot, i really liked how this looked and was very pleased with it.

We then filmed Oyinda and John together just messing about together and shots of John trying to put his arm around Oyinda but Oyinda pushing him away this really fits with the narrative of our video.And also John throwing confettii over oyinda which i really liked the look of, this symbolises how much John's character likes Oyinda's but Oyinda doesnt look impressed showing that shes not intrested at all. We then filmed different shots so that when editing we can put them together to make the split screen scenes, we filmed John pass a bunch of flowers off shot and then Oyinda picking one up from out of the shot. We also filmed John knocking so when we edit them together it will be as if John was knocking on Oyinda's part of the screen we filmed Oyinda ignoring him. And finally we filmed just blank white screens to put in the other split screens when John and Oyinda are not in them.

The second location we went to was the Kings Head pub in Enfield town, we was thrilled to be able to film in there and really thankful as they let us and the staff was really helpful. We was even allowed to film behind the bar which was really exciting, as this would get us great camera shots, at first we was abit worried about the dim lighting but i think it was fine in the end. We started filming the part in the lyrics 'so you want to buy us a drink then?, no! But i was thinking of buying one for your friend' we had John sit on a bar stall and then danielle walked over and mimed the girls part of the line and then John pushes her head out the way to look at Oyinda sitting behind Danielle, i think this looked really good and adds humour to our video.We also filmed some other pub scenes such as the bar and John drinking (apple juice as this is similar coloured to beer) we filmed this shot as it could be our open shot to that verse which starts with the lyrics 'cut to the pub...'

After uploading what we filmed we was able to show the rest of our group and they thought what we had filmed looked really good and so did I and now we cant wait to start using final cut pro to get editing, im so excited.

Pink's idea:

After filming, I watched Pinks video raise your glass and realised that she had used almost excatly the same shot as us, to show women in such a strong light:

At the begining of the video pink is shown tensing her musle and she has a bandanna just like the ww1 poster which we had already decided to use.
I also like other ways Pink has shown a feminist ideology, at the very start of the video you see a girl shown not to be worried about her weight as she is eating a corndog, and she then hits the typically thin girl who is a cardboard cut out, this symbolises that the girl on the right (the cardboard cut out) is not a real women. women are portrayed in music video's as very thin and often shown in a sexual way, pink doesnt conform to these sterotypical views of women.

Another video which really shows Pinks views on sterotypical women in the media is Pink - stupid girls:

Filming day one:

The other day, we went to Danielle's house to film the bedroom scene, we wanted to use danielle's bedroom as it is a really girly bedroom which is really pink and has a very pretty look, mise-en-scene is very important and although the character in our video is a very pro women and stong women we still want her to be fun and girly.
we started by setting up the location, we put magazines on the bed, with a teddy and lots of pink cusions. Then Oyinda got into costume, she was wearing a dark coloured topcat t-shirt we wanted her outfit to be quirky and stand out against the pale pinks in the background, she also wore long brown socks, this is a typical bedroom outfit as you wouldnt just wear a t-shirt out on its own. we then set the camera up and started filming Oyinda sitting on the bed we then filmed her sitting on the floor by the window this let us get a high angled shot, and also a close up, i really liked these shots as the lighting was really good near the window. We then filmed Oyinda jumping on the bed just as an extra shot which is quite quirky and funny and we want humour in our video. we then filmed Oyinda sitting next to our WW1 poster which we had put on the wall next to the bed, Oyinda was pulling the same pose as the women in the poster. I really enjoyed our first day of filming and im so excited about uploading and seeing all the footage.

Practice filming:

The other day our group went out just around school to do some practice filming to get a feel of the camera and try out some of our ideas for our song choice, we practiced different shot angles and lip syncing. After uploading the shots we realised that we would need to film from so many different shot types especially close ups as there are very important in music videos. When we started to edit what we had filmed we realised that we didnt film nearly enough footage to make a music video however we managed to put together what we had filmed. we have put together the start of our song,and then we did a seperate video just showing some of our practice filming:

Andrew Godwin's theory:

Andrew Godwin writing in 'Dancing in the Distraction Factory' (Routledge 1992)
1. Music video's demonstrate genre charecteristics. For example, stage performance in metal video/ dance performance for a boy/girl band all need their set stage directions.

2. There is a relationship between music and visuals; either illustrate, amplify, contradicting.

3. There is a relationship between music and lyrics; either illustrate, amplify, contradicting.


4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work ( a visual style)

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens telescopes) particularly voyeurism treatment of the body.

6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, tv, music)

Conventions of a music video:

Lyrics: these tend to help establish a general mood, feeling or sense of subject matter, rather than offering a meaning.
key lines may play a part in association to visuals but very rarely will music videos simply illustrate the lyrics.

My group and i have already picked out certain lyrics which we would like to have images to match the lyrics, however not to many as we thing this would look cheesy.

Music: the tempo and pace of the song should drive the editing, we would like to emphasise particular sounds from our song by changing the editing technique at these parts in the song.

Genre: some genres cross over while others are categorised, i think our song is pop. some channels and radio stations focus on a particular genre, i think The Box, The Hits, Non-stop smash hits, and Viva mainly focus on pop music.

Camera work: Camera movements may accompany the movement of performers, we would like to use a Dolly or Track to have our performer walking towards the camera on a straight path.

Close ups create star image and a sense of intimacy with an audience, this emphasises the purpose of our music video to promote and sell our star and video.
We will be trying to use lots of close ups for these reasons.

Editing: quick, fast cuts, montage effect this will go well with our song as it is very up beat and fast pace. Digital effects to enhance editing and we would like to use split screens if we can and colourisation.

Some of our lyric ideas:

so this is a song about anyone, it could be anyone. mid/lobg shot of our main singer (female) and a boy just appears in the background as if from no where.
Cut to the pub on our last night out A quick cut shot to a pub.
oh yeah actually im pregnant the girl pretending to be pregnant/ waving a pregnancy stick in his face?
"oh here we go" extreme close up of girls lips singing
Go away not, let me go... split screens

Our treatment:

Feminism:

For our music video we are thinking of going against the 'norms'of a pop video, we want to have a feminist approach to our video which will contradict the normal conventions of traditional pop videos, however other artists like pink and the spice girls also have a 'girl power' ideology, we have been thinking of ways to include intextual elements and decided to use our pro women idea to do so, we was thinking that our bedroom scene where the artists are sitting in a girly bedroom we could have a close up shot of a WW1 Women poster on the bedroom wall, this will show our message of strong women, we think this will match our song as it is mainly about men who constantly come up to girls with the intention to 'pull' we have based our narraitive around this, however we are showing our artist as against this and we want to take away the subjectifing view of women in music videos.
We want to show our actress in typical womens locations such as the kitchen however we will contrast this with her doing something there which is not so typical of women such as, going through the fridge while her bf cleans around her.

Performance idea's

For our music video we wanted to use the diversity of both narrative and performance elements to make it interesting to watch. For our performance part we have decided to use a plain white back drop so the outfits and colours on our performer will stand out as it is a pop genre we wanted to have bold bright colours to fit with the conventions. We are using the photography room as the location of our performance element as we can use the lighting and back drop to make our video look professional.
This video by Florence and the Machine reflect ideas that we may include in our performance part. Her bright outfit, movement and props (heart shaped flower bouquet), stand out against the minimal background. This video has inspired us to make our shots more imaginative, so rather that just a front, still shot, we could include some high angle shots or low shots of feet dancing.





I really like the flower props used in the video and I'd really like to use similar props as i think they stand out look really creative i think they will go very well with our song and video.

here is a screen shot of us using a similar prop in our music video:

Prop list:

Today Oyinda and I had a group meeting and decided that we need to make a list of props which we would need during filming this will help us be organised and very helpful during planning our shoot.

Composition:

Framing and Composition of the shot is very important,
Rule of thirds:
The Rule of thirds is a compositional rule which states that an image should be divided into nine equal parts by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines. Aligning a subject with these points creates more tension, energy and interest in the composition than simply centering the subject would. So I will keep this in mind when filming Our music video.

Band or Solo?:

My group and I have been wondering whether we should use our idea of a girl band which is very traditional for pop music or change our idea and have a single artist, we keep changing our minds and wondering which will be best for the video.
personally i like our idea of the girl band especially as we have already come up with so many good ideas for the narrative of video which we will only be able to do with a girl band, such as the changing people.
however we could still do a similar idea but instead of the people changing the artists clothes can just change.
due to practical reasons i think it will be best if we use a single artist as not all our group members may be able to make it each time we film, also we wouldn't all be able to be in the shot at the same time because someone would have to be filming and generally most performances contain the whole of a band. lucky enough changing our girl band to a solo artist doesnt effect our storyboard much at all so it is not much of a problem.
so we are now using Oyinda as or artist.

Lip sync practice:

In our group we have decided that for our actor it should be either Oyinda or Danielle as they are confident and we think they will look good in the video.
here is their first attempt at lip syncing:

Audience questionnaire:

Name:

Gender: Male Female

Age: 11-14 15-19 20-26 27+

Occupation:

Favourite music genre: Pop Indie Dance Country R&B Contemporary Rock Other?

How do you access your music videos: Internet Television Radio

Do you have any expectations of a 'Pop' music video?

Do you think it is important for the artist to be in his/her music video? and why?

What Costumes/Make up do you expect in a Pop music video?

What locations would you expect a pop music video to be set?

What are your expectations of a music video from Lily Allen?

How do you think Lily Allen is portrayed in her music video's?

Here's a response to my questionnaire which i recieved on social networking site Facebook:

girlband research:

The spice girls:
the spice girls were my childhood hero's and are icons to all present and future girl bands, as we a doing a girl band i think it is really important to research into them,

Background history:
British girl group formed in 1994, consisting of five girls Victoria Beckham (posh spice), Emma Bunton (baby spice), Melanie Chisholm (sporty spice), Melanie Brown (scary spice)and Geri halliwell (ginger spice)they released their debut single 'wannabe' in 1996 which reached number 1 in over 30 countrys after this the group was established as a 'world phenomenon'.

i really like the way that the girls all had different personalities and brought these out to show each of them as different within the group, no other girl bands have done this as far as i know, so i would like to show a similar idea for our girl through our video, showing each girl in a different location which reflects their personality and also different costumes.

Storyboard:

We have been thinking about many different ideas for our video, and we have now come together and put them all down in order of when we want them and where in the song we want them. These are the pictures of our storyboard so far, we have changed some of our ideas that we originally thought of doing for example we had thought about having every chorus in the same location (the park) but now we are thinking we are thinking of having the location change throughtout the video as it might get too repetitive for the audience. But we would still like to start our video in the park and also end it there.

As i was drawing the storyboard i colour coded it to make it easier when filming, i wrote all props we would need in red and all camera angles and movements in green. we also wrote what we would have our artist doing on shot in great detail to make sure we knew excatly what we was doing so we didnt forget to film anything or miss anything out. we also wrote how many seconds each shot would be and to what lyrics they will go, this will help later when editing.

Treatment:

what is a treatment?
A short outline of a media production designed to give a clent an over view based on a brief, they are written descriptions however they can also include sketches and imageszs to demonstrate the intention of a production. often used to sell an idea it is an integral aspect of the production process.

Our treatment will include:
. background to the song/artist
. basic narrative or concept of the video? are you creating a performance, narrative or concept and why?
. what 'feel' do you want to provide for your audience?
. how will you achieve this?
. what are the codess and conventions of your genre?
. in what whys are you conforming to or subverring them?
. what themes do you have running through the video?
. how will you use costumes and make up to convey your messages?
. where is your location and why?
.have you obtained the bands permission?

i will do some research before making our treatment and i will get some information so we can answer these questions

The hypodermic needle theory:

The hypodermic needle model (also known as the hypodermic-syringe model) is a model of communications also referred to as the "magic bullet" perspective, or the transmission-belt model. Essentially, this model holds that an intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver. The model is rooted in 1930s behaviorism and is largely considered obsolete today.

The hypodermic needle theory implied that mass media had a direct, immediate and powerful effect on their audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behaviour change. Several factors contributed to this "strong effects" theory of communication, including: the fast rise and popularization of radio and television, the emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda, the Payne Fund studies of the 1930s, which focused on the impact of motion pictures on children, and Hitler's monopolization of the mass media during WWII to unify the German public behind the Nazi party.

Later developments:
The phrasing "hypodermic needle" is meant to give a mental image of the direct, strategic, and planned infusion of a message into an individual. But as research methodology became more highly developed, it became apparent that the media had selective influences on people.

The most famous incident often cited as an example for the hypodermic needle model was the 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds and the subsequent reaction of widespread panic among its American mass audience. However, this incident actually sparked the research movement, led by Paul Lazarsfeld and Herta Herzog, that would disprove the magic bullet or hypodermic needle theory, as Hadley Cantril managed to show that reactions to the broadcast were, in fact, diverse, and were largely determined by situational and attitudinal attributes of the listeners.

Audience Theory:

'Audience theory is a element of thinking that developed within academic literary and cultural studies

With a specific focus on rhetoric, some, such as Walter Ong, have suggested that the audience is a construct made up by the rhetoric and the rhetorical situation the text is addressing. Others, such as Ruth Mitchell and Mary Taylor have said writers and speakers actually can target their communication to address a real audience. Some others like Ede and Lunsford try to mingle these two approaches and create situations where audience is "fictionalized," as Ong would say, but in recognition of some real attributes of the actual audience.

There is also a wide range of media theory and communication studies theories about the audience's role in any kind of mediated communication. A sub-culturally focussed and Marxism-inflected take on the subject arose as the 'New audience theory' or 'Active audience theory' from the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies during the 1980s.

The hypodermic needle model
The intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver.
Two-step flow
The people with most access to media, and highest media literacy explain and diffuse the content to others. This is a modern version of the hypodermic needle model.
Uses and gratifications
People are not helpless victims of mass media, but use the media to get specific gratifications.
Reception theory
The meaning of a "text" is not inherent within the text itself, but the audience must elicit meaning based on their individual cultural background and life experiences
Obstinate audience theory
This theory assumes that there is a transactional communication between the audience and the media. The audience actively selects what messages to pay attention to. The Zimmerman-Bauer study found that the audience also participates in the communication by influencing the message.

Editing ideas:

As our idea in the video is not to have the band as if they know each other for the perpose of the song, we was thinking as a humour idea at the end of the song, we was thinking of having all four girls in the video chase the boy away with props, such as a bunch of flowers, heels, a huge lolly pop, and a rolled up newspaper. we was thinking of doing this part of the video in sepia as if it was an old sient movie

We no speak Americano by yolanda be cool used a similar idea for the whole of there music video:


Charlie Chaplin was an icon because of his silent movies which are very humouros, since many have copied and used similar ideas to him:

Split Screen idea's:

My Group and I was thinking about having split screens in our music video, I really liked this idea, so i did some research to see what other artists have done this and how they've used this editing technique as part of their video.

Kings of Leon - The bucket:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnZmWE8JG3M

I like how the video has used split screens of all different size's to add interest and create a different type of composition.

Girls Aloud - The show:


This video has also used split screens however in a very different way to the Kings of Leon one. However both are interesting and create a different composition.

My groups idea was to have the screen split into four different equal sections, while our artist is in one section our main male character will be in another, the two others will be empty at these times. however the sections are characters are in will change. We was thinking of having our characters pass props through the different screens. We have filmed each box separately and we will put them together on screen through editing.

advert ideas:

In our video we are having the girl band act as if they do not know each other for the narrative of our song, as our song is about a boy asking a girl for her number we thought it would be good if we could have him shown asking diffrent girls for their numbers. during the chorus of our song we was going to show the four girls in our band walking down a long path in a park, we only want to see one girl at a time so we was thinking of using editing to show the girls change and also we want their clothes to change dramaticly to show each characters personality.

we have found this advert which shows something similiar to our idea:

wordle:

I have made this Wordle at http:www.wordle.net/ i have used words that my group and i would like our band to be related to,we think these words can describe our band. i have also used words from which we have been given feedback by our peers.

Our mind map:

My group and i have made a mind map in our first official meeting to just briefly outline some code and conventions and mise-en-scene such as location,props and costumes that we may want to include in our music video, we also looked at whether we wanted our video to be narrative or performance based and we have decided to use both however due to the difficulty of finding instruments we have decided our performance will only be lip sync. We also discussed editing tecniques and camera angles and shots we'd like to use.

Song Lyrics:

"Knock 'Em Out"

Alright so this is a song about anyone, it could be anyone.
You're just doing your own thing and some one comes out the blue,
They're like,
"Alright"
What ya saying,
"Yeah can I take your digits?"
And you're like, "no not in a million years, you're nasty
please leave me alone."

Cut to the pub on our last night out,
Man at the bar cos it was his shout,
Clocks this bird and she looks OK,
Caught him looking and she walks his way,
"Alright darling, you gonna buy us a drink then?"
"Err no, but I was thinking of buying one for your friend..."

She's got no taste hand on his waist, tries to pull away but her lips on his face,
"If you insist I'll have a white wine spritzer"
"Sorry love, but you ain't a pretty picture."

[Chorus]
Can't knock em out, can't walk away,
Try desperately to think of the politest way to say,
Just get out my face, just leave me alone,
And no you can't have my number,
"Why?"
Because I've lost my phone.

Oh yeah, actually yeah I'm pregnant, having a baby in like 6 months so no, yeah, yeah...

"I recognize this guy's way of thinking..."
As he comes over her face starts sinking,
She's like,
"Oh here we go.."
It's a routine check that she already knows, she's thinking: "They're all the same."

"Yeah you alright baby? You look alright still, yeah what's your name?"
She looks in her bag, takes out a fag, tries to get away from the guy on a blag, can't find a light,
"Here use mine"
"You see the thing is I just don't have the time."

[Chorus]

Go away now, let me go,
Are you stupid? Or just a little slow?
Go away now I've made myself clear,
Nah it's not gonna happen,
Not in a a million years,"Knock 'Em Out"

Alright so this is a song about anyone, it could be anyone.
You're just doing your own thing and some one comes out the blue,
They're like,
"Alright"
What ya saying,
"Yeah can I take your digits?"
And you're like, "no not in a million years, you're nasty
please leave me alone."

Cut to the pub on our last night out,
Man at the bar cos it was his shout,
Clocks this bird and she looks OK,
Caught him looking and she walks his way,
"Alright darling, you gonna buy us a drink then?"
"Err no, but I was thinking of buying one for your friend..."

She's got no taste hand on his waist, tries to pull away but her lips on his face,
"If you insist I'll have a white wine spritzer"
"Sorry love, but you ain't a pretty picture."

[Chorus]
Can't knock em out, can't walk away,
Try desperately to think of the politest way to say,
Just get out my face, just leave me alone,
And no you can't have my number,
"Why?"
Because I've lost my phone.

Oh yeah, actually yeah I'm pregnant, having a baby in like 6 months so no, yeah, yeah...

"I recognize this guy's way of thinking..."
As he comes over her face starts sinking,
She's like,
"Oh here we go.."
It's a routine check that she already knows, she's thinking: "They're all the same."

"Yeah you alright baby? You look alright still, yeah what's your name?"
She looks in her bag, takes out a fag, tries to get away from the guy on a blag, can't find a light,
"Here use mine"
"You see the thing is I just don't have the time."

[Chorus]

Go away now, let me go,
Are you stupid? Or just a little slow?
Go away now I've made myself clear,
Nah it's not gonna happen,
Not in a a million years,

[Chorus x2]

Nah I've gotta go cos my house is on fire,
I've got herpes, err no I've got syphilis...
AIDS, AIDS, I've got AIDS!

Genre Theory:

what is a genre?
'Genre' is a critical tool which helps us study texts and audience responses to texts by dividing them into categories based on common elements;

Daniel Chandler (2001)
He argues that the word genre comes from the french word for 'kind' or 'class' the term is widely used in rhetorical literary theory, to refer to a distinctive type of 'text'
All genre's have sub genres (a genre within a genre) this means that they are divided into more specific categories that allow audiences to identify them more specfically by there familiar and what becomes reconisable characteristics similar to Barry Keith Grant (1995).

However Steve Weale (1995) stresses that 'genre's are not 'system' they are processes of systematation' meaning that they are dynamic and evolve over time.

Email to producers:

We have sent an email to the producers of Lily Allen, we iformed the producers that we our Alevel media students and would be using the song by Lily Allen 'knock 'em out' on the album 'Alright, still' we made it clear that we was only using the song for educational reasons and therefore there would be no copyright problems.

Final song choice:

We have chosen our final song, We are going to do Lily Allen- Knock 'em out


We have chosen this song as have think it is:
. very quirky, girly and fun and we feel that this matches our genre; Pop.
. we liked the cheeky character of Lily Allen and we feel that we would be able to create a good video with lots of character to reinforce our Pop genre.
. there is not a video already and therefore nothing to live up to.
. we liked the beat as it is constant and strong therefore easy editing opportunities.
. we found that the tempo and speed of the song is not always consistant, we liked how it slowed down for a part as we thought we would be able to change our editing style to show more editting tecniques and create diffrent atmosphere for diffrent parts of the song.
.we like that our song has a strong beat which allows good editting opportunuties, however the strong beat could lead to it becoming reapeatative, we will try to use different settings and locations, props, costumes and make-up to insure this does not happen.

Secondary research mood board:

Mood Board

Some songs we like:

Lily Allen: Not Fair

We decided we really like this song by Lily Allen as we think it is fun and quirky, Lily has a very likeable personality and we would like to create the same 'cheeky' character in our video. We like this song because it is not very serious and we feel that we would have fun making a video to this.

Ke$ha: your love is my drug

We choose to look at this song because we really like the artist Ke$ha like Lily Allen she is fun and a bit wild and different to other artists, i liked this song because its very catchy and i think we would be able to make a creative and fun video to go with this song. However this song already has such a good video i think it would be hard to pull off something as good in comparison.

Katy Perry: California girls

I really like this song and i think it would be a really good song to do as we would be able to have such a creative video and Katy Perry like the other artists we choose are very unique and fun when it comes to their videos and i thought it would be good to re-create these quirky videos. However it would be hard to make a video to compare to these Artists as they are such big and famous our video wouldn't fit in.

Lily Allen:

Lily Allen (02.05.1985) was born in Hammer smith, she is an English singer-songwriter, with several hit singles and a successful debut album to her name. She also now hosts her own BBC Three talk show, Lily Allen and Friends, in which she invites her MySpace contacts to be the live audience for the show.
Her father Keith Allen was an actor & her mother Alison Owen was a producer. She went to 13 different schools & left at 15. She turned to music, writing punk, reggae, ska & R&B music. In 2005, she was signed to Regal Records, after having met the production duo, Future Cut. She was given £25,000 to record an album.
Her MySpace popularity has been well documented. She began posting demos online in November 2005. The tracks attracted thousands of listeners and a small run of 500 copies of 'LDN' was hastily released. The Observer Music Monthly took interest in her popularity but few people outside of Regal's A&R department knew who Lily Allen was, so the label's response to requests for interviews was slow!
In July 2006
she released her first album with great lyrics & catchy music athough starting her career online she later Lily chose to work with producers Greg Kurstin and Mark Ronson to finish the album and it was completed in two weeks.The album was entitled Alright, Still. Entertainment Weekly named it one of the Top 10 albums of 2006, despite it not having been released in the US.Lily Allen has undertaken a number of collaborations, including providing backing vocals for Robbie Williams on his Rudebox album, for Basement Jaxx on the track 'Lights Go Down' and 'Wanna Be' by Dizzee Rascal.

Both Narrative and Performance video's:

Most music videos, tend to have a mixture of elements from both narrative and performance techniques. this tends to be very effective as it is good to see a artist performing although too much could become a bit boring and repetitive for the viewer, So by including a storyline makes the video more interesting without becoming complicated as it is split up with performance scenes.

Examples of both Narrative and Performance video's are,
The All-American Rejects - Gives You Hell:


I Like this video, I like the narrative it as i find it very interesting to watch, i like how it also contains elements of humour as this adds to the interest. I really like the parallel editing and how its used to emphasise the contrasts between the two characters the band's lead singer plays. I also really like the use of quirky settings, props and locations.

Oasis - Stop crying your heart out:


I like the blend of both narrative and performance in this video although i dont think the story in the narrative is a strong as others i have seen, it is still very intresting to watch. I like how the pace of editing is slow and this goes perfectly with the song. I really like how there is alot of close ups to show facial expressions as i think the song is an emotional and personal song.

The kooks - Shine on:


I really like how the Narrative and Performance is set in the same location, i like how the diffrent camera angles and movements are used to make the video intresting aswell as the mix between narrative and performance. I love the use of quirky props and the Mise-en-scene of the location is very quirky I would like to create a similar effect in my groups video however i'd like ours to be more girly as ours is pop genre.

Narrative video's:

Narrative music video's are like short film's which are accompanied by a musical background. Usually contains a short story that is easy to follow and the lyrics are often put at the same time to parts of the story this makes it easier for the viewer to follow. Sometimes there is no lip sync however most music videos tend to use a bit of both.

Example of Narrative video's are,
Yolanda be cool - We no speak Americano:


I really Like this video as I find the story very intresting to follow, everytime it comes on the music channel i find myself drawn to the screen. I like how the story has elements of humour as i think this brings alot to the video, I would like my group to have elements of humour in my groups video. I also extremly like how the video is perfectly on time with the beat of the song.

Arctic Monkeys - Fluorescent Adolescent:


I find the story in this video very intriguing i like the contrast of the men dressed as clowns and the men dressed as 'robbers' I like how clowns are ment to be happy, jolly characters and in this video they are potrayed in a negative light as they are fighting. I think the narrative makes the viewer want to watch on to see what happens.

Performance video's:

Performance music videos pre-date the 1980s. Before MTV, performance music videos were exactly as the term suggested, music performances captured on video. These were used solely as promotion and often called "the promo clips."
In a performance video you can see the artist singing or lip syncing the song or you can see the instruments involved in the song shown in the video. I think that older music video's are more likely to be performance videos, as they didn't have as much technology to make a video as they have today.

Examples of Performance Music video's are,
The Beatles - Help:


I really Like the video, It uses lots of camera angles and movements, which make it interesting. Our song isn't done by a band therefore we are unable to do a full performance video showing instruments.

Kings of Leon - Notion:


I actually love this video, although it is a performance video, i really enjoy watching it, the use of so many different camera angles and movements and also the location and things happening around the band while performing makes the audience want to watch on. I love the lighting and the fire and location falling down around them brings drama and interest.

Coldplay - Viva La Vida:


I enjoy watching this video, also performance based, the background effects brings interest and i really like the extreme close ups of the instruments being played, i also really like the fast pace editing at the same time as the beat of the song, I would like to create a similar effect with my groups music video although ours is narrative based.

Ke$ha:

Kesha Rose Sebert 01.03.87 beter known as her stadge name Ke$ha is an American pop singer and song writer,at the start of her career She wanted Prince to produce her music, so she found and snuck into his Beverly Hills home. Once discovered, she was thrown out, but not before she dropped off her demo, which was wrapped in a purple bow, with Prince himself. Keshe survived on low income and few gigs while pursuing her career at first as a waitress to make ends meet while furthering her music career in studios with different producers. It was then that she met Dr. Luke who had come across her demos and was so impressed that he contacted her with Max Martin and began a working relationship with her immediately.
She is very modern and Although she began her music career in 2006, her breakthrough only came in early 2009, between 2006 and 2009, Kesha's music appeared in a variety of media, her song "Former Overexposed Blonde" appeared in Degrassi, The Next Generation, while "Backstabber" and "Chain Reaction" were used in The Hills. "Paris Hilton's Closet" was featured in an episode of The City. During this time, she also co-wrote The Veronicas' single, "This Love", sang background vocals for Britney Spears' song "Lace and Leather" and appeared in the video for Katy Perry's single, "I Kissed a Girl" Her appearance in the video arose due to her being friends with Perry.
Her breakthrough finally happened in 2009 after appearing on Flo Rida's number one single, "Right Round." Sebert's debut single, "TiK ToK," was later released in October reached number 1 in eleven countries, preceding the release of her debut album, Animal, in 2010.

Artist Research:

This Year in media we are making a music video, i am really looking forward to the research and construction of this video;
to start the research i have looked into diffrent music genres, there are many diffrent genres and music types from counrty and classical to heavy metal and pop and many in between, as a group we have decided to go for a indie or pop genre as we generally listen to this music and it is often in the charts.

my group and I then started to look at atrists which fit into our choosen genre,
we choose to look at four or five artists to start with and then decide three which we really like, we choose these artists as we generally like their music and thought we would be able to make a professional looking video.

After looking through videos for our choosen artist we thought it would be better if we choose a song by an artist which doesnt already have a video as people are less likely to be expecting something the artist has done already. We also didnt want to copy a video we just want to use a similar style as the artist.
We have choosen quite famous people and we think choosing a song which hasnt already had a video made will also help our group as people wont compare our video to the one which has already been made.
These are the artists we are thinking about choosing and some of the songs we have found by them which we like :

Lady GaGa:
.Eh Eh (nothing eles to say)
.Alejandro
.Speechless

Ke$ha:
.Your love is my drug
.Get in line
.Disgusting

Lily Allen:
. Cant knock 'em out
.littlest things
.22

Katy Perry:
.One of the boys
.California girls
.Waking up in Vegas

The Kooks:
.Always where i need to be
.she moves in her own way
.sway